As forecast, the wind was blowing / gusting a good 15-20 knots straight down 24 for the best part of the day. 

The Sunday crew consisted of Duty Instructor Barry McCarthy accompanied by wife and helping hand Lynette, AEI Lindsay Mitchell, Tug pilot Neil Schaefer and yours truly as DP. Shortly later we were joined by L2 Mick Moloney and CFI Dave Higgs to try their luck in potential wave conditions. 

 

 

First flight of the day (and flight of the day) was Lindsay with passenger Terry Lawler who got his money's worth soaring wave and thermal for just over an hour (63 min). 

Conditions proved to be difficult for the rest, as we scratched around for thermal activity and the occasional bit of wave. 

The rest of the days flights consisted of a currency check for myself with Barry, another mutual with Barry and a mentoring flight with Lindsay which was very educational. 

Additionally Mick and Dave redeemed their first 12 min flight following with a respectful 35 min flight. 

 

In summary, the conditions were somewhat challenging, but we still got a reasonable amount flying done and I personally learnt a lot from the flying I done. It's not often we get conditions like that at YCAB and I would say to the students and some of the less experienced pilots out there (including myself) to grasp the opportunity to fly in such conditions (with experienced pilots) so the day you're out flying in them alone, you (a) have half a chance at staying aloft for over 10 minutes and (b) don't get too surprised when wind gradient steals 20 knots of your airspeed on short finals OR you turn around to find yourself uncomfortably too far downwind from the airfield!

Many thanks to the Sunday crew! 

CQC: 1:45 @ 5 flights

GYK: 0:33 @ 2 flights

Dan Kershaw (Duty Pilot)